"Prompt our actions with your inspiration, we pray, O Lord, and further them with your constant help, that all we do may always begin from you and by you be brought to completion. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever."

Mark 7:24-30 is one of the strangest passages in Scripture and it will be our focus for the next three days of the first week of Lent. Jesus withdraws from Galilee and takes His disciples to Tyre. There they secretly entered a home. Word got out, and a woman whose little girl was suffering from what the Bible calls an "unclean spirit," came to Jesus for help. Jesus said, "Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to dogs." (v. 27) The woman responded with "Yes lord, but even the dogs under the table feed from the children's bread." (v.28) Jesus is impressed by this answer and says, "because of your answer go: the demon has left your daughter." (v.29) What is going on here? Today we are going to focus on the "Where" of this story. If you look in Acts 10, you see Peter being called by God to go to the Gentiles, in verse 27, he enters into the home of a Roman, and makes a point to let him know that it is wrong for him to be there under Jewish law. However, since Jesus took the disciples to Tyre, it was most likely a Gentile home they were in when the woman approached Him. Why would Jesus take a group of good Jewish boys into the home of a Syrophoenician Gentile? Because in Mark 7, Jesus is already preparing Peter for Acts 10. At this moment Jesus is showing that this Gospel is bigger than the disciples thought. He is showing them that some religious traditions have a nasty habit of getting in the way of the new thing God is doing.

As we observe Lent, let us be aware of the new things God is doing, and let us be mindful of ways He is preparing us for ministry. May all we do be founded in and prompted by the One God who reigns forever and ever.

Prayer Points // Pray God shows you how He has been preparing you for ministry. Pray God reveals the ministry for which you have already been equipped in Christ.